Don't Sweat The Showers

Our Towns

Bloomfield & Neighbors

September 13, 1996

Parents in a lather over the shower policy in Bloomfield public schools should cool it. Having students in grades 5 through 12 clean up after gym class is not asking too much.

Yes, public showering can be awkward, especially for children near or entering puberty, as many students at Carmen Arace Middle School are discovering now that mandatory showering has been reinstated after being suspended for several years because of a lack of locker attendants. And additional complaints by students that showers pose an inconvenience echo ones voiced recently by some high schoolers in Plainville. These students say they don't have enough time to shower.

But showering after gym is just good basic hygiene. No amount of cologne or talcum powder can mask a body's reaction to physical activity.

Certainly, school officials need to provide students with sufficient time to shower and still make their next class.

And concerns about modesty that some parents are raising in Bloomfield, particularly on behalf of their daughters, are legitimate. School officials should be sensitive to the discomfort level that the notion of school showers pose for many female students.

Some privacy issues can be addressed, such as providing individual stalls with curtains, as is being done for girls at Carmen Arace.

But worries expressed by some parents about possible health risks are overblown. The shower areas are cleaned daily, and teachers now serve as attendants.

Complaints that the schools should be concerned only with academic subjects are just plain wrong. Teaching the lifelong benefits of physical activity and hygiene are nothing less than survival skills.